House Fire Kills 11-Year-Old In New Britain

NEW BRITAIN — An 11-year-old boy died in an intense, fast-moving fire that tore through a multi-family home on East Street early Tuesday morning, and police and fire investigators are working to determine the cause. Eleven other people were left homeless.

Cade Townsend Jr. died in the fire, police said.

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Firefighters were called to 756 East St. about 1:20 a.m. When they arrived, they found the three-story house engulfed in flames, police Capt. Thomas Steck said.

They had been told that a child was trapped on the third floor and tried repeatedly to get to him, but conditions deteriorated, and the firefighters were ordered out of the burning building, Steck said.

They went back when the fire was under control and found the boy unresponsive, Steck said. He was pronounced dead.

All three apartments were occupied when the fire broke out, but the other 11 occupants were able to escape uninjured, Steck said.

Damage to the building was extensive, he said, and the house is not livable.

Mayor Erin Stewart said that firefighters responded in about three and a half minutes, but the fire was so intense and fast-moving that they could not gain access to the building in time to save the child.

A fire lieutenant was treated at a hospital for first and second degree burns and later discharged, Stewart said.

"The fire was raging so badly and so hotly that it ripped right through his gear," Stewart said.

Thomas Turner, who lives down the street, said he saw the fire quickly spread from the ground floor to the upper levels of the house.

"It was really, really intense, like an inferno," Turner said.

Sandy Lesperance said she came home from work to see her second-floor apartment in flames. Her nephew had to jump from the second floor to escape, she said.

"He had to jump through the window … and he's got scrapes all up his arms, down his legs, everything. He was looking for my grandson in the house," she said. It turned out that the grandson was outside with her daughters, Lesperance said.

The American Red Cross is helping the three displaced families, but Stewart said the families are staying with relatives. She said her office had already received a "tremendous outpouring of support" for the families Tuesday morning with people expressing their sympathy and asking where they could send donations, and that the city would be working with local churches in the coming days to organize those efforts.

Superintendent Kelt Cooper said in a statement Tuesday that Townsend was "well liked and well-known to fellow students who were, obviously, affected emotionally by the loss of a classmate."

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Cooper said the district was making counselors and social workers available at Townsend's school Tuesday.

"The district, as a whole, mourns the loss of someone so young and extends its thoughts and prayers to the child and family," Cooper said.

Peter and Patricia Schiavo bought the 3,336-square-foot house in September 2003 but do not live in the building. It was built in 1910.

The local fire marshal, state police investigators, representatives of the New Britain State's Attorney's Office and city police detectives were on the scene investigating throughout the morning.

Stewart said it could take investigators several days to determine the cause of the fire.

"It's definitely going to take some time because of the magnitude of the fire and the loss of life," she said.

J Timothy's Taverne in Plainville, where Townsend's father works as a cook, said on its Facebook page Wednesday that it has established a GoFundMe account to benefit the family because they lost all of their belongings in the fire.